Sam Hunt Shares Sweet Reason He Sang to His Wife at the ACM Awards

Sam Hunt caused a frenzy in his fan community when he shone the spotlight on his then-fiancee Hannah Lee Fowler during his performance at the 2017 ACM Awards. Now, he's explaining why he did it.

It was unexpected. Hunt playfully made his way off the stage, and no one knew where he was headed until he found his seat next to Fowler and put his arm around her while she adorably tried to hide her face from the camera. Hunt said the move was a purposeful one — the first step in attempting to get his wife more comfortable with the limelight.

“Involving her with that performance was fun. She was a little uncomfortable about being there and a little overwhelmed," he says via his record label, "and she may not agree, but I thought that would warm her up a little bit to the whole experience and she may not admit it, but I think it did."

Hunt also reveals that he had a bit of a mishap during the performance when his audio pack got trapped in the cushions of his seat onstage, and as a result, he was unable to hear himself singing. But he says that having his love in the audience made the unfortunate occurrence a minor detail.

“I get concerned about little details a lot of times and things going wrong or not going wrong and having her there just made it all go away," he admits. "So, that’s another reason I wanted to go down and sit with her and made sure she knew that she’s really what matters, you know."

The ACM Awards were on April 2, and Hunt and Fowler got married a few weeks later (April 15) in Georgia.